Elizabeth "Betsy" Patterson Bonaparte (February 6, 1785 РApril 4, 1879) was an American socialite. She was the daughter of a Baltimore merchant, and the first wife of J̩r̫me Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother.
Betsy was born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 6, 1785. She was the daughter of Dorcas (née Spear) Patterson (1761–1814) and William Patterson (1752–1835). Her mother was the daughter of a Baltimore flour merchant and her father, an Irish-born Presbyterian who came to North America from Donegal prior to the Revolutionary War, was the second wealthiest man in Maryland after Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signatory of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
Elizabeth's brother, Robert Patterson, married Carroll's granddaughter, Marianne Caton. After Robert's death, his widow Marianne married Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, the older brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Another brother, Edward Patterson, was the owner of Joppa Iron Works in Eastern Baltimore County.
On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1803, Elizabeth was married to Jérôme Bonaparte (1784–1860) in a ceremony presided over by John Carroll, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Baltimore. Betsy quickly became known for her risqué taste in fashion, starting with her wedding dress. Jérôme was the eighth and last surviving child (and fifth surviving son) of Carlo Buonaparte and his wife, Letizia Ramolino.
Jérôme's brother Napoleon ordered his brother back to France and demanded that the marriage be annulled. He ignored Napoleon's initial demand that he return to France without his wife. In the fall of 1804, Jérôme and a pregnant Betsy attempted to travel to France in time for his brother's coronation, but a number of false starts delayed them. When they finally arrived, Elizabeth was denied permission to set foot in continental Europe by order of Napoleon. Jérôme traveled to Italy in an attempt to reason with his brother, writing to his wife, "My dearest Elsa, I will do everything that must be done," but she would never see him again, except for a brief eye-to-eye contact in 1817.
After remaining in limbo, unable to disembark in either France or the Netherlands, she gave birth to a son, Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte (1805–1870), on July 5, 1805 at 95 Camberwell Grove in Camberwell, London. Jérôme gave in to his brother, returned to the French Navy, and married the German princess Catharina of Württemberg on August 22, 1807, in the Royal Palace at Fontainebleau, France. His marriage to Betsy had not yet been dissolved.
After her son was born, whom she called "Bo", Betsy returned to Baltimore with him and lived with her father while she continued to flaunt her royal connection. After the Battle of Waterloo, she returned to Europe, where she reportedly was well received in the most exclusive circles and much admired for her beauty and wit.
In 1815, by special Act of the Legislature of Maryland, she secured a divorce. Her last years were spent in Baltimore in the management of her estate, the value of which she increased to $1.5 million.
In 1861, she filed an inheritance claim in the Tribunal of First Instance at Paris after her former husband, Prince Jérôme, died on June 24, 1860. On February 15, 1861, the Tribunal of the Seine ruled that "demands of Madame Elizabeth Patterson and her son, Jerome Bonaparte, are not admissible, and must be rejected."
Betsy died on April 4, 1879 in Baltimore in the midst of a court battle over whether the state of Maryland could tax her out-of-state bonds. The case reached the Supreme Court (Bonaparte v. Tax Court, 104 U.S. 592). The court decided in favor of Maryland. She was interred in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore. Her tomb bears an epitaph: "After life's fitful fever she sleeps well."
Her son married Susan May Williams in 1829 and had two children, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II (1830–1893) and Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851–1921), who became Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of the Navy in 1905, and the U.S. Attorney General in 1906.
The story of Elizabeth and Jérôme's marriage and annulment is the basis for the 1908 play Glorious Betsy by Rida Johnson Young and the two film adaptations, Glorious Betsy (1928) and Hearts Divided (1936). She was portrayed by Dolores Costello in the former and by Marion Davies in the latter. The episode "Duty" of the Hornblower television series features Elizabeth (played by Camilla Power) and Jérôme trying to land in France, and the diplomatic difficulties. A historical novel about her life, The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte by Ruth Hull Chatlien, was published in 2013.
In the 2016 book A Woman of Two Worlds: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, the author, Alexandra Deutsch, Director of Collections and Interpretation at the Maryland Historical Society, analyzes Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte’s personal belongings and letters to create a material culture biography of the woman whose seductive beauty and tragic marriage have long been documented.
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